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Grendel (Klyntar) (Earth-616)
| Aliases = Dark Carnage, }} Grendel, Symbiote Dragon, Venom | Identity = No Dual | Affiliation = Knull, ; formerly , , ally of Big Mother | Relatives = Knull (creator); Carnage (fusee); Venom, Mania, and Legion (absorbed); Tyrannosaurus (offshoot, deceased); Miles Morales' Symbiote (offshoot, deceased); Sym-Soldier Symbiotes (offshoots; reabsorbed); Weapon V symbiotes (offshoots); Eddie Brock (former host); Cletus Kasady (former host, deceased); Norman Osborn (former host); Grendel Doppelgängers (offshoots; former hosts); John Jameson (former host); Chewie (former host); Carol Danvers (former host); Numerous people, rats and pigeons (former hosts) | Universe = Earth-616 | BaseOfOperations = Mobile | Gender = Agender | Height = Variable | Weight = Variable | Eyes = White | Eyes2 = or Category:Red Eyes red White or Category:Yellow Eyes yellow as Carnage. | Hair = None | UnusualFeatures = Glowing yellow mouth as Carnage | Citizenship = Klyntar | MaritalStatus = Single | Occupation = Weapon; Conqueror | Education = Symbiote Hive-Mind | Origin = Klyntar dragon created by Knull | PlaceOfBirth = Symbiote Throneworld | Creators = Donny Cates; Ryan Stegman | First = Supernatural Thrillers Vol 1 3 | First2 = (Mentioned, unnamed, before retcon) (Historically) (Chronologically) | Last = | HistoryText = Origins The symbiote dragon that later became known as the Grendel was created billions of years ago by Knull, alongside a crimson symbiote dragon manifested from Knull's blood. Sent out into the cosmos, the two symbiote dragons rampaged across the cosmos for billions of years, driving the inhabitants of countless civilizations insane before devouring them. Viking Age In the sixth century CE, the two symbiote dragons arrived on Earth and attacked Scandinavia, razing cities to the ground and devouring Norse peasants and soldiers alike. The black symbiote dragon, which was being directly controlled by Knull, was attacked by the storm-god Thor Odinson while laying siege to a mead hall. Subdued by Thor's divine lightning, it was trapped inside a glacier; forming the basis of the legend of Beowulf slaying a dragon. }} Old Norse carvings depicting this battle indicate that pieces of the Grendel fell to earth after its defeat and bonded to human hosts, founding a secret apocalyptic cult dedicated to the worship of Knull and the symbiotes. Vietnam War In 1965, the Grendel's frozen body was discovered by S.H.I.E.L.D., who excavated it and used samples of its living abyss to create the Sym-Soldier Program, a super-soldier program headed by Nick Fury. Upon realizing it was still alive, S.H.I.E.L.D. immediately began searching for a way to kill it, subjecting it to torturous experiments. However, they were unsuccessful and these efforts only sent its enraged offshoots on a killing spree in Vietnam. After its offshoots were subdued, the Grendel was placed into storage in a remote S.H.I.E.L.D. facility alongside them. Modern Era Having appropriated the shuttered Sym-Soldier Program's research and personnel, Weapon Plus established the Weapon V supersoldier program and began using samples of the Grendel symbiote to engineer suits of symbiote bio-armor, eventually learning how to sever their connection to the hive-mind. Following the collapse of S.H.I.E.L.D., the Grendel and its offshoots were being transported to a top-secret location to be disposed of. After Venom interrupted the transport, the Grendel was awakened by Knull and started wreaking havoc in New York, reclaiming all but one of the offshoots extracted by the Sym-Soldier Program. It was subdued by Venom and Spider-Man until Knull used its living abyss to manifest an avatar. Knocking Miles unconscious, Knull reformed the Grendel around himself, Spider-Man, and Eddie Brock - distracting the latter by telling him the history of the symbiotes - and flew into space; intent on recovering its missing piece, and using it to free himself from Klyntar. After Venom merged with the Grendel's missing piece, the Tyrannosaurus symbiote called out to Knull, who attacked Rex's base. Despite the Grendel symbiote being destabilized using the Jury's sonic grenades, Knull's manifestation managed to rip the Venom and Tyrannosaurus symbiotes from Eddie and tried to assimilate them, but Eddie detonated all the sonic grenades at once. With Knull's manifestation weakened by the resulting explosion, the Tyrannosaurus symbiote was able to rebel and drag him into the blast furnace; sacrificing itself to immolate the Grendel symbiote and seemingly killing Knull in the process. However, a small piece of the Grendel symbiote survived and was harvested by The Maker's organization, Project Oversight, before being stolen from his lab by the symbiote-worshipping cult. The cult's leader, Scorn, bonded the remnants of the Grendel symbiote to Cletus Kasady's corpse in hopes that Knull would be able to use him as an avatar, reanimating the serial killer and causing him to take on an appearance identical to Venom and the Sym-Soldiers' berserk forms. Knull and Cletus struggled for control over the latter's body until the Grendel's connection was severed when it assimilated the codex - trace remnants of symbiote matter left in former hosts - that the Carnage symbiote had left in Scorn; causing it to take on the Carnage symbiote's appearance and personality. Carnage decided to free Knull, and was told that in order to do so he would have to consume the codexes of all the other symbiotes, thereby making the Grendel symbiote complete. In order to accrue an army of minions, Carnage conquered the Underground City that Venom had once protected, establishing a spire formed of the Grendel symbiote, and began infecting homeless people and animals with pieces of the symbiote. Carnage sent his minions to locate those who had bonded to symbiotes, though this attracted the attention of the Venom symbiote. While harvesting the codexes of Doverton, Carnage bonded offshoots of the Grendel symbiote to Eric Morell and John Jameson, killing the former to harvest its codex and turning the latter into a sleeper agent. By the time Carnage hunted down Andi Benton - former host of the Mania symbiote - the Grendel symbiote had manifested a white version of Knull's spiral emblem on its forehead, and was powerful enough that Carnage could laugh off being blasted by hellfire and easily slaughter the Monsters of Evil, forcing Andi to flee into Hell to escape. Eventually returning to New York, Carnage laid low during the War of the Realms, establishing a symbiote spire in the subway tunnels under Grand Street and continuing to use the Grendel symbiote to assemble an army of infected rats, pigeons, and homeless people; sending them to hunt down former symbiote hosts. He also used the symbiote to reanimate Emil Gregg, the purportedly fake Sin-Eater who'd ruined Eddie Brock's journalistic career, and sent him after Eddie. , fused with the Carnage symbiote.]] As the Grendel symbiote assimilated more codices and even entire symbiotes, Carnage took on a towering skeletal appearance, manifesting a white dragon/spider emblem on his chest and angular projections on its upper back. Seeking to get close to Lee Price - the Mania symbiote's then-current host, Cletus used the Grendel symbiote to impersonate Eddie Brock in order to discredit him and allowed himself to be arrested. After assimilating the Mania symbiote, Carnage was finally ready to move in the open and transformed the civilians he'd infected with pieces of the Grendel symbiote into four-armed monsters resembling the Doppelgänger, unleashing them to wreak havoc on the city. Norman Osborn and Miles Morales were bonded to offshoots of the Grendel symbiote, transforming the former into a duplicate of Carnage and the latter into a six-armed Carnage doppelgänger. The Grendel symbiote's link to its offshoots was diminished when the spires underneath San Francisco and New York were destroyed; but it was able to assimilate the Venom symbiote and fully rejoin Knull's hive mind; undergoing a transformation into a towering figure with horns, retractile bat wings, and black pauldrons and arm-wraps resembling Knull's. After Norman Osborn was knocked out by Spider-Man, his portion of the Grendel symbiote separated from him in order to kill Dylan Brock, but was destroyed when Dylan's symbiote powers activated. Cletus Kasady was subsequently killed by Eddie Brock, who stripped the Grendel and Venom symbiotes from his corpse and bonded to them both, Venom assimilating the Grendel symbiote and the codices. .]] This later backfired on Venom, as the Grendel symbiote - imprinted with the personality of the original Carnage symbiote - attempted to force Eddie to kill the Avengers when he was offered a membership by them. Eddie silenced it with antipsychotic pills and chartered a Quinjet to Isla de Huesos in order to kill the reborn Carnage symbiote once and for all, but it caused the plane to crash and stripped Eddie of the Venom symbiote. Eddie ran away and hid in abandoned bunkers around the island to arm himself up. Meanwhile, the Carnageized Grendel symbiote bonded with all the animals around the island. When Eddie came to confront the Carnageized Grendel symbiote, it tried to bond to him, and treated to make him watch as it destroyed the world. Eddie, determined to do anything to get his symbiote back, cut his hand off. The Carnageized Grendel symbiote found Eddie climbing a radio tower at the peak of Isla de Huesos' mountain and bonded to him, mockingly asking if he intended to radio the Avengers for help. Eddie told it that he came to pray to the one god he knew could stop it, Thor, as the tower was struck by a bolt of lightning. Separated from Eddie and the Venom symbiote, the Carnageized Grendel symbiote tried to rebond to Eddie but was stopped by the arrival of Captain America, who rescued Eddie and left both symbiotes stranded on the island - which was annihilated by a nuclear missile. | Personality = While it was sentient and capable of speech, little is known about its original personality other than that it was devoutly loyal to Knull - serving as the vessel for his will and consciousness. Like most corrupt symbiotes, the Grendel is a bloodthirsty predator and is responsible for the destruction of entire civilizations. After bonding to Cletus Kasady, its consciousness was overwritten by that of the original Carnage symbiote. | Powers = 'Symbiote Physiology:' As a symbiote-dragon the Grendel symbiote was capable of interstellar flight, enabling it to annihilate entire civilizations. Even when reduced to an incomplete shadow of its former self, it was still powerful enough to easily overwhelm regular symbiotes; and by absorbing enough codices and symbiotes it was able to regain its godly power by amplifying its connection to Knull. * '''Superhuman Strength' * Superhuman Stamina * Superhuman Durability * Superhuman Speed, Agility, and Reflexes * Accelerated Healing Factor * Camouflage Capabilities * Constituent-Matter Generation Like other Klyntar, Grendel is capable of manifesting tendrils from its biomass, using them to attack prey. ** Offshoot Generation: Its constituent living abyss is capable of being separated into individual symbiotes that can be bonded to hosts. When bonded to Cletus Kasady, it can bond to the maggots infesting his body to turn them into "brain worms" that Cletus can infect targets to control them or turn them into Carnage Doppelgängers. The Grendel symbiote is also capable of reanimating corpses, which it has done to both Cletus Kasady and Emil Gregg. Cletus bonded offshoots of the symbiote to inmates at Ravencroft Institute, turning them into a horde of four-armed monsters; and to Norman Osborn, turning him back into Carnage. * Constituent-Matter Manipulation: The Grendel symbiote is capable of transforming its constituent matter into bladed appendages to attack opponents, and draconic wings for flight. | Abilities = | Strength = | Weaknesses = Electricity: it is particularly vulnerable to high voltages of electricity - being incapacitated by Thor's divine lightning and Miles Morales' bioelectric Venom Blast, which caused it to temporarily destabilize and unravel into an amorphous mass. Sonic and Heat: Like most symbiotes, the Grendel was vulnerable to heat and sound, though to a much lesser degree than most symbiotes. In its dragon form it was capable of withstanding incendiary missiles fired at it by the US army; and the Sym-Soldiers bonded to offshoots of the Grendel symbiote were capable of withstanding napalm flamethrowers, but were incapacitated by the explosion of Nick Fury's LMD during the Vietnam War. Venom was able to use sonic grenades to temporarily incapacitate it, and almost destroyed it using a steel-smelting blast furnace, which Eddie described as "feeling like touching the sun." Additionally, other symbiote-dragons were slain by the Silver Surfer conjuring stars within their bodies. After it bonded to Cletus Kasady, the Grendel symbiote became invulnerable to both heat and sonics to the point of being capable of withstanding Hellfire, which Cletus attributed to him being cursed -- referring to both the power of the Darkhold and his increased connection to Knull. }} However, Grendel Doppelgängers still have the weakness. | Equipment = | Transportation = Due to having manifesting a winged draconic shape, the Grendel and its ilk are capable of interstellar flight at hypersonic speeds. | Weapons = Grendel uses its fanged jaws, talons, wings, and tendrils as weapons. | Notes = * The Grendel is one of many symbiote-dragons created by Knull, though Donny Cates collectively refers to all of them as Grendels in his scripts and interviews. Director's Cut}} * When asked why Absolute Carnage referred to the Grendel symbiote as being the "Carnage symbiote" when it was bonded to Cletus Kasady, writer Donny Cates stated that any symbiote that Cletus Kasady bonds to becomes the "Carnage symbiote" due to him having been the one who first came up with the alias. }} * Although it is established by Knull that all symbiotes are vulnerable to heat and sound, Grendel was able to withstand missiles fired by the army. After bonding to Cletus Kasady, it inherited the power of the Darkhold that the original Carnage symbiote had been embued with and became completely immune to both heat and sonics. }} * The symbol on Dark Carnage's chest is meant to be a white version of Knull's dragon emblem, though numerous artists have mistakenly drawn it as Venom/Mania's spider emblem. }} * The Carnage Doppelgängers seem to have been based on the Outriders and Doppelganger. | Trivia = * The Grendel in its draconic form and its fellow symbiote-dragons resemble the Black Berserkers created by Gorr using the All-Black symbiote, being hostless entities manifested from living abyss. * Despite being referred as Grendel, the character has no similarities to the actual mythological Grendel. It also seems that the character was confused with the Dragon, who is unrelated to Grendel and his mother. | Marvel = | Wikipedia = | Links = }} Category:Claws Category:Fangs Category:Tentacles Category:Winged Characters Category:Dragon Form Category:Giant Monsters Category:Living Abyss Category:Gestalt Characters Category:Alien Gods Category:Knull Worshipers Category:Electricity Weakness Category:Clones of Carnage Symbiote